John's Story
As I sit down to write my nightmare experience of ETS surgery, I realize my hands are too dry to begin. For the first time in my busy and active life, I am in a living nightmare. I write this testimonial today to share with anyone considering this surgery to re-consider, in my opinion, it should not be considered an alternative. I lived with palmer hyperhidrosis since my late teens, or possibly early twenties. Why did I have it? There are a multitude of theories. I have ho idea which one to believe, or whether or not they all have validity to some degree. The point is, 1 had it, and it was what would have been considered a moderate case. I live in Los Angeles. I am forty-six years old, and in good shape. I play golf. I fish. I work out. I worship the sun, tropical islands, and the outdoors. My health is excellent. I had a good life. Then, 1 saw an ad in the L.A. Times for "sweaty palms?" I looked into it, and found it was a research project for botox and its affects. I went down to get tested to see if I could be a candidate. They tested my sweating, and a computer score deemed me a non-qualifier. I was surprised, and learned that they had a formula they were following, and my numbers fell short of more dyer cases. I left somewhat disappointed. Now that my interest had been peaked that there may really be a cure for this problem, I called my doctor. He said he had heard of a surgery, but didn't know much about it. I called another doctor of high repute, and he also knew little, but said if there was anyone to go to, it was Dr. Richard Fischel. He was the best. I call Dr. Fischel, and made an appointment to see him. We had a one hour consultation. Alone. With nothing taped or vidioed. I asked every question I could think of. He said that his technique, while working with the reputed Dr. Cooper, a neuron surgeon, was the finest in the land, that they, together had a ninety-eight per-cent success rate. He told me that the only thing I would experience would be some compensatory sweating behind the knees, and some on the abdomen, and that would go away in about six months. Well... that was enough for me. I asked one final time if there were any "down sides at all to this surgery." His final answer to me was a smug "None." That was all I needed. I had spent one hour with a repected thoracic surgeon, and someone who seemed sincere and honest, and was afterall a doctor, which we have all been raised to trust. At least those of us who are in the baby-boomer category. So/enough said. I had made up my mind. I would have the surgery. And I scheduled my appointment for August 10,2000. Today/1 write this on February 20th, 2001. I am on my way to world renowned acupuncturists/ Drs. Daoshing Ni, and Maoshing Ni at The Tao of Wellness in Santa Monica, California. I have been seeing these doctors for over a month. They believe we may be able to re-generate the most important T2 and T3 nerves that Dr. Pischel and Dr. Cooper cut out of me. What the good doctors failed to tell me was that with my hands no longer sweating, I would also no longer sweat from my head, my face/ my neck, my shoulders, my upper back, my upper chest, and my arms. They neglected to tell me that. A nasty little oversight. A matter of disclosure. It never occurred to me to ask. Why would I? As for my hands not sweating. Success!! They are so dry, I cannot turn a page. I can't count money. I can't pick up a cardboard box, or a notebook, or a half gallon of imlk, without it slipping out of my hands. As to the compensatory sweating. In a word. Nightmare. Anything in the least bit strenuous leaves me dripping from the lower torso down. I feel as though my life has been ruined from this. I look at everything differently. I see sweat pouring off an atihietes head on a billboard, and I get depressed. I take long bike rides to try to get sweat again to my upper regions, to no avail. I am trying to stay positive, but it is hard. I go to bed with it, and I wake up with it. I cry. I scream. I blame myself for not researching this more thoroughly. I beat myself up. 1 have horrible thoughts of what I would like to do to these doctors. I cannot believe this is real. I cannot believe it's not all a bad dream. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, and have a brief moment of thinking it is a dream, and then the realization that it isn't With time, I am learning to accept my new body. I am not giving up. On the contrary. I got on the internet again the other day to try one more time to find someone with some answers. My own doctors no longer cared to deal with me. Dr. Bschel saw me once for a follow-up, where I had become extremely agitated^ dearly upset, two months after the surgery, and he looked me square in the eye and told me that he had told me everything before the surgery. This went back and forth to no avail. He just lied, and seemed perfectly comfortable with his stand. Last month, I finally got an appointment with Dr. Cooper, the neurologist He was arrogant, condescending, and pacified me as a child. He recorded everything into his hand recorder. When I talked about my horrible excess sweating, he would then record into his recorder my "perceived excess sweating." I could see this was a dear waste of my time. I was merely trying to get some concrete answers in regards to whether or not I would ever sweat again in my upper regions. He could not, or would not give me a concrete answer/ and suggested possible therapy, and possibly going on medication for anxiety. Unbelievable. I made another appointment to see him in three months, which I have no intentions of keeping. By the way, I was charged for this follow-up, as was I charged for my first follow-up with Dr. Pischel. If there is a hell, I can promise you all, these boys will be going there. That's it. That is my story. I promise you, I never dreamed anything like this would ever happen to me. But then< nobody ever does. These things always happen to someone else. These are stories you here happening "out there" somewhere. Please think long and hard before you subject your life to this radical, and invasive change. Good luck. http://www.excessive-sweating-hyperhidrosis.com/John.htm